With nine races complete, the Cup season has passed the one-third mark of the 26-race regular season.
The playoff standings are taking shape. A win secures a driver a playoff spot (provided there are not more than 16 different winners in the first 26 races). Chase Elliott became the season’s sixth different winner with his victory this past Sunday at Texas.
That leaves 10 playoff spots via points.
If the playoffs started today, former Cup champions Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski both would be out. Busch last missed the postseason in 2012. Keselowski did not make the playoffs in 2022, his first season as co-owner/driver of RFK Racing. That was the first time since 2013 he had missed the postseason.
Busch is tied with Joey Logano for the 16th and final playoff spot, but Logano holds the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker is best finish this season. Logano’s best finish this year is a second-place result at Richmond. Busch’s best finish this year is a third-place result at Atlanta.
Keselowski is one point behind Logano and Busch. After Keselowski are Legacy MC teammates Erik Jones (38 points from the cutline) and John Hunter Nemechek (57 points from the cutline).
Chase Briscoe was outside a playoff spot after Martinsville, but his sixth-place finish at Texas moved him to 13th on the playoff leaderboard, knocking Busch out of the top 16.
The series races Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET on FS1).
The regular season ends with the Sept. 1 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on USA Network. The playoffs begin Sept. 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on USA Network.
In the graphic below, drivers in yellow have won. The red line marks the cutline for the playoffs.
